Protect
by Volcanic Plug
Summary: Protect: verb often from, against keep person etc. safe; shield. Merlin protects Arthur, in so many ways... Chapter 4: Watch over
1. Screen

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.

Authors Note: First up, thanks to everyone that's reviewed and favourited... anything I've written really! Especially 'A Problem Shared', as I'm rather proud of that one, even if it's not a funny one.

So this next story requires a little explanation. Basically I opened my thesaurus to the word 'protect' and what follows will be a series of oneshots, each based on one of the words in that entry. If I manage it all, there will be 20 chapters (wow!), hopefully of varying genres, themes and lengths, but obviously in most there will be Merlin protecting Arthur somehow. At the moment I have a couple written, some half-written, some I just have ideas for, and some that I'm pretty clueless about, so updates will not be regular! There's no overlying plot though, so I won't be leaving you in suspense or anything!

I think that's it, so here we go with the first entry, _screen_.

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**Screen**– 1 shelter, hide. 2 protect from detection, censure etc.

Next time he was just going to leave him to be carried off by bandits. Honestly, it was Arthur's own fault! How many times does he have to be told not to enter the Valley of Fallen Kings? It was like speaking to a child! But no, here they go again, Merlin was the one stumbling around, desperately trying to get away from bloodthirsty bandits, while attempting to drag along an injured and barely conscious prat of a Prince. _That_ was the most frustrating part, that Arthur was _barely_ conscious. If he was conscious he could help a bit more to move himself and if he was completely unconscious Merlin could just use magic to move him, but _no_, he just has to be _awkward_...

His internal monologue was rudely disrupted by an angry shout that sounded much closer behind him than he'd like. The bandits were catching up.  
"Merlin..."  
"Shut up Arthur." He interrupted before the Prince could say something ridiculous about leaving him behind. Still, they were going to get caught soon...  
Arthur gasped involuntarily as Merlin suddenly swerved to the side. "What are you doing?"  
"Be quiet!" he hissed, settling Arthur down behind a tree.  
"Merlin, they'll find us hiding" the injured man slurred pessimistically, before finally losing consciousness.  
"No they won't," the servant stated assuredly "they won't find where _you're _hiding." He quickly began pulling pieces of undergrowth over to screen the fallen Prince, looking over his shoulder warily as he heard the bandits crashing closer.

Satisfied that Arthur was well hidden, the warlock rejoined the track they were on previously, not before muttering a quick, but temporary silencing spell; it would be no good if Arthur woke before the bandits had passed and started yelling for him - he was_ awfully_good at yelling after all. Just in time, the bandits rounded the corner and Merlin set off at a run, careful to avoid leading them past Arthur. "Are you really that slow?" he taunted over his shoulder. The bandits wasted no time in pursuing him.

Luckily, it wasn't long after he'd left Arthur that he ran straight into the path of a patrol from Camelot that had been sent to find them. Unluckily, immediately after barrelling into that patrol, Sir Leon's horse took offence at this disruption, reared, and dealt Merlin a glancing blow to the side of his head to teach him not to run in front of horses without looking.  
As a result, it was some time later before the Knights found Arthur, first, having to defeat the bandits and then, having to check over Merlin, who had been knocked out cold. Before he regained consciousness they'd started to follow his trail in the hopes of finding what had happened to Arthur, but had been forced to stop after a short while as Merlin woke and proceeded to vomit up his breakfast due to a severe concussion. Finally, the servant unsteadily led them back to where he'd left the Prince. In fact, he was quite easy to locate in spite of the undergrowth screening him, as Arthur could actually be heard a good deal before he was seen.

"MERLIN!"  
The bellow echoed along the valley. The Knights rushed on, calling out to Arthur while Merlin stumbled along behind. He sounded angry, which Merlin thought was rather unfair seeing as he'd just saved the Prince's life _again_. By the time he reached the others, Arthur was being helped up by Sir Leon and was already glaring at his manservant.  
"What?" Merlin snapped irritably.  
"Of all the ridiculously useless servants I've known, you surely are the worst Merlin!" Arthur began as Sir Ethan began binding his leg. "What were you _thinking_?"  
"I was thinking that you were heavy and I couldn't carry you all the way home." he replied bluntly, then continued before Arthur carried on protesting. "Oh and that if the bandits caught us, they would _kill us_."  
"_Merlin!_ I had everything under control!" the disgruntled prince returned. "It was _you_ that decided to pick a fight with a _horse_!"

Sir Leon shook his head in exasperation as the two continued bickering. He just didn't understand them sometimes... The amount of trouble the pair got into was _almost_ as impressive as the amount they miraculously managed to get out of.  
When they'd heard that Prince Arthur was missing _again_, having left Camelot with only his manservant _again_, the King was understandably concerned and sent out several of his best Knights to find them. Of course, Sir Leon knew that he shouldn't have been worried. After all, it seems Arthur needs only Merlin to protect him.

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Well there you go! I've started you off with a fairly conventional idea of protection. Some of the others won't be quite as obvious. Anyway, I hope you liked it! Please review in this shiny new box down here...


	2. Stand up for

Summary: Protect _verb_ (often + _from, against_) keep (person etc.) safe; shield.

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.

Author's Note: It's been ages, I know! Sorry. It wasn't writer's block - more like the opposite! I have too many ideas at the moment, literally at least half a dozen half-written ones. I'm just not very good at thinking of resolutions to these stories once I start them! So here's another chapter for Protect. As you can see, I went for short and sweet. It's nothing particularly exciting I'm afraid, but I'm going to try my best to finish off some of the other things I have floating around on google docs that I hope are a bit more original!

Thanks for all reviews of all my other fics! I think people are reading more Merlin fanfic now series 5 has started, as I've had a burst more reviews recently, so thank you!

**Stand up for**– support, side with

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Merlin watched as Arthur walked away from their camp, his shoulders slumped. He thought about going after him, but instead turned to the other man.

"Stop it!"

Tristan blinked at him. "Look..."

"No you look! You don't _know _Arthur, you're in no position to judge him!" Merlin interrupted.

"I know he's a King, that's all I need." Tristan replied arrogantly.

"Really? So you think he's a poor King?" Merlin responded.

The smuggler sneered. "I suppose you're going to tell me he's a great King?"

"No." That at least made him pause. "Right now, he's just a _good _King. Still, better than any other I've heard of, including his father. But one day he'll be the greatest King this land has ever known!"

Tristan looked pretty startled by this announcement and opened his mouth, but Merlin continued, looking the other man in the eyes. "I _know _he will."

The smuggler scoffed, but glanced at Isolde, a trace of confusion and curiosity in his gaze. Merlin knew what he was thinking. He didn't often tell people about his unfailing belief that Arthur would be _the greatest _King, because he knew that they wouldn't understand. But it did at least make them think. Why would this servant, who gets bossed around and belittled by the King all day, every day, have such adamant and unswerving loyalty to him?

"Why would you stand up for him so? I know he's your King..." Isolde questioned.

"He's not just my King, he's my _friend_. And I'm his friend, even though I'm just a servant." They both looked confused now, so he tried to explain.  
"When I first met Arthur, I hated him. I thought he was an arrogant self-centred prat. I didn't want to be his servant, that happened by accident. But the more I got to know him, the more I knew that wasn't true. You'll see it too, before too long."

They were listening to him at least. "Arthur cares about his people more than anything else and will _always _do what's right by them. He defied his father once, to save my life and has lied to the King to keep me out of trouble. He's broken the code he's meant to live by to allow commoners to join the ranks of his Knights. He's brave, just, noble and fair, and I am proud to call him my King."

Tristan and Isolde looked stunned speechless, but Merlin didn't wait for any response, and turned away abruptly to follow Arthur.

He was frustrated by Tristan's blind prejudice against Arthur, but he was more frustrated by the fact that the King was just taking it. He still had to find some way to knock Arthur out of this miserable funk he'd fallen into, but for now, hopefully he'd at least given Tristan something to think about. If that meant he left Arthur alone a bit, then it was worth it.

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Thanks for reading!


	3. Take care of

Summary: Protect _verb_ (often + _from ,against_) keep (person etc.) safe; shield.

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.

Author's Note: A short one today, but at least it's something! And despite saying I was going to finish off things I'd already half written, I actually started something else last week. Oops. Anyway, this is a slightly less obvious example of 'protect', hope you enjoy it.

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**Take care of** – 1 look after. 2 deal with. 3 dispose of

Gwaine had known there was something a bit different about Merlin. Despite being a servant, he hardly ever acted like one. He was cheeky and disrespectful and joked with them all as well as any knight. Most of the time the way he treated Arthur was more like an annoying brother than his sworn liege. It was part of the reason he liked Merlin so much, in spite of his strange unwavering loyalty to Arthur.

He remembered the moment he thought there might be _more_ to him. He had returned to Camelot for the first time since his banishment and was currently spending his visit sneaking through the immortal-army-infested citadel with the crown prince, his servant and a blacksmith named Elyan. But then Arthur had begun to falter, his injury clearly not as healed as they'd hoped. And suddenly, Merlin was taking charge. He took the lead, _ordered_ him and Elyan to look in the dungeons, while he dragged Arthur to see to his wound. He wasn't really sure if he should do as he'd said at first, but the _authority_it was spoken with couldn't be argued with. Merlin was the reason he was here after all, so he'd do as he asked. As Gwaine followed Elyan round the corner he heard Merlin telling Arthur "To hell with your orders, you're coming with me!". It was Merlin that made the decision to leave the city, he lead them to the caves and sent for reinforcements in the name of Lancelot.

At the time Gwaine was a little confused and overwhelmed by this new Merlin, unsure where he'd popped up from. But the more he thought about it, the less it bothered him. Merlin would do _anything_for Arthur, including apparently doing the Prince's job when he was injured or in shock, or moping, or whatever it was he'd been doing for the past 3 days.

And now here they were again...Morgana invading the castle, Arthur injured and rather useless. This time, he didn't hesitate, didn't question it while Merlin took care of things.

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Told you it was short! Please review :-)


	4. Watch over

Summary: Protect _verb_ (often + _from, against_) keep (person etc.) safe; shield.

Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin.

Author's Note: Oh no! Have you heard the news? I'm so afraid they're going to ruin everything! I really hope we get a happy ending.

Anyway, I'm not particularly happy with this, but I wanted to get something out. I promise the next chapter of this will have Merlin doing some actual protecting - there will be some action!

One more thing - I have a poll up on my profile. I've got a bunch of half-written pieces on my computer that I'm struggling to finish... I was hoping you guys could give me a bit of a boost by telling me which one(s) you'd be most interested in seeing next!? This might actually make me finish them, or at least try to clean up and post what is already written. Thanks!

**Watch over**

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It was a tradition apparently, for the heir to the throne to go on such a quest. Gaius had told him about others - some had even resulted in the death of the prince. But the idea that Arthur would have to prove himself worthy of his title of crown prince seemed inherently ridiculous to Merlin, who would happily tell anyone that asked that Arthur was the best Prince Camelot could ask for and the people were lucky to have him. In his opinion, Arthur had proved himself worthy to be king every single day. Of course, that was only something he'd tell Arthur himself in totally dire circumstances.

But never mind how pointless Merlin thought this whole exercise was, he could tell how important it was to Arthur and that was all he needed to take it as seriously as possible.  
The Prince had teetered between agitatedly twitchy and thoughtfully tense for days before, so Merlin had done his best to strike a balance between cheering him up and relaxing him, while not aggravating him or testing his patience too much.

It was a solemn occasion and Merlin felt quite frankly privileged to be the one person permitted to be present as Arthur prepared himself. He wasn't sure he understood fully, but gathered Arthur was supposed to be left alone in meditation, allowing the inspiration for his quest to come to him in a vision.

It had shown him a different side to Arthur. He'd seen the man serious before of course, but it was usually a determined sort of serious that said 'we have a problem, but I'm your prince and I WILL fix it', rather than this solemn, still, sort of serious. He'd never thought that Arthur was much of a believer in such _spiritual _things, he was too practical, but in a way it made sense. This was a significant event for the kingdom and if nothing else, Arthur was loyal and dutiful to his kingdom.

Merlin wondered if it was much like things with his magic sometimes. If there was a difficult or particularly powerful spell he needed, but didn't know, he could sometimes just take a moment to stop and draw into himself and suddenly he knew what to do. He was becoming more and more used to the feeling, but part of him wondered what exactly was happening...where was this coming from? It was like he could reach into himself and _touch _the old religion. Perhaps that was what Arthur was doing with this. He would search inside himself and find the answer, find his quest.

He knew that technically he wasn't required to wait for Arthur to finish his ritual, but more importantly, Merlin knew the power of faith and trust. So if his presence in the background, believing in Arthur, would help him believe in himself, then there was no way he would leave. He would stay watching over his Prince all night.

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So here you are, another chapter of this! I'd love for you to review, but also please fill in my poll - I need your help! Thanks!


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